Perimeter’s COO Paul Smith wins top award from the Chemical Institute of Canada
Paul Smith, Perimeter Institute’s Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer, has won the 2025 Montréal Medal/Médaille de Montréal, the highest award of the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC).
“The medal is presented as a mark of distinction and honour to a resident of Canada who has shown significant leadership in or who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession of chemistry or chemical engineering in Canada,” according to the CIC.
Smith joined Perimeter in 2021 with a wealth of experience in scientific research and management, and has played a strong leadership role at Perimeter and across the country advocating for the value of fundamental science research.
About Paul Smith
Prior to joining Perimeter, Smith was a member of the Xerox Senior Leadership Team and Vice President and Director of Xerox Global Materials Research Centre.
Smith was also the inaugural Chairman of IntelliFLEX, the Canadian Printed Electronics Industry Association, a former Director of the Board of NGen Canada, and a past Chair of the Conference Board of Canada’s Council for Innovation and Commercialization.
From 2014 to 2018, he served on Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Committee on Research Partnerships.
In partnership with the National Research Council of Canada, he helped create the Canadian Campus for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing, a partnership between government and industry for world-class research and development focused on commercialization of devices for the Internet of Everything and CleanTech.
Smith also served as Chair of the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) from 2019-2020. During the Covid pandemic and with changes at CIC during 2020-2021, he took on the role of Interim Executive Director for that organization.
He is also a Director of the Board of Mitacs, a member of the Executive Advisory Council of C2MCI and is a member of the Governing Council of the HIBAR Alliance.
Smith received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Bath, England in 1991, and an MBA from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto in 2001. From 1992 to 1995 he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Guillet lab at the University of Toronto.
He is a named inventor on 78 U.S. patents and has 15 publications.
Smith has given plenary and keynote talks at international conferences including InnoLAE and SEMICON.
He was also the 2023 recipient of the Canada Medal from the Society of the Chemical Industry (SCI).
À propos de l’IP
L'Institut Périmètre est le plus grand centre de recherche en physique théorique au monde. Fondé en 1999, cet institut indépendant vise à favoriser les percées dans la compréhension fondamentale de notre univers, des plus infimes particules au cosmos tout entier. Les recherches effectuées à l’Institut Périmètre reposent sur l'idée que la science fondamentale fait progresser le savoir humain et catalyse l'innovation, et que la physique théorique d'aujourd'hui est la technologie de demain. Situé dans la région de Waterloo, cet établissement sans but lucratif met de l'avant un partenariat public-privé unique en son genre avec entre autres les gouvernements de l'Ontario et du Canada. Il facilite la recherche de pointe, forme la prochaine génération de pionniers de la science et communique le pouvoir de la physique grâce à des programmes primés d'éducation et de vulgarisation.
